we're safe, thanks for the concern...
howz thehomeimprovementz goin'?...
btw, just checked theshoulders... lookin' good...
S-L-O-W-L-Y We keep finding things we can do to improve it a little more. We're competing against 18 or 20 other homes in the same general price range that have all been on the market for over 4 months. The market has almost ground to a halt here, so anything to make our house stand out in the crowd is a good thing. We're in a great neighborhood, so the location thing is settled. We just have constraints in the sizes of the rooms, and nothing can be done there because of the basic size of house. So we're getting new cabinetry and vanity tops for the two upstairs bathrooms to make them look 2006, not 1988, which is not too expensive.
We didn't want to have to go to the expense of replacing the cabinets in the kitchen, so we're plating the hardware because the bright brass finish wore off years ago, and cleaning up the doors, brushing with some Golden Oak stain on the edges of doors, etc, that have worn over the years. Since all of the major appliances decided to die at one time, we decided to reconfigure the cabinets when we replaced them. This called for new countertops, so we're going to try our hand at concrete countertops.
It ain't rocket science; I learned to do it at a Builder's Trade Show here a few years ago, it will just take some trial and error on small pieces first. Actually the guy who taught us how to do it doesn't do large countertop pours. He does pre-cast in melamine lined molds, and when he turns the counter over, it is a gorgeous satin smooth finish; no grinding needed. He pours long counters in 2 or 3 foot sections and uses silicone glue to put them together. SInce they were pre-cast in the molds, the edges are extremely smooth. He even emphasizes the seams sometimes by placing flat items like coins, flat chunks of pretty colored stones like jadeite or malachite, slices of agate, fossils and even pieces of transmissions in the mold before pouring in the concrete! That means when the section is turned out, that item will show right on the top of the counter. Makes for interesting conversation pieces, I can tell you.